Music heavy on dancing, but that's nothing brand-new

Updated 10:00 pm, Sunday, November 5, 2006

Punk rock was the last great movement in American music. Grunge came close, but the capitalists were quick to contain it, brand it and turn it into a cash cow.

Since then, music hasn't advanced much at all. In fact, the past 10 years have been a period of unprecedented recycling. Plenty of music aficionados are asking: Do we really need another post-punk band or worse, another band that wants to be Black Sabbath?

There seem to be no more new ideas in music.

Which makes the pairing of neo-soul darlings Brand New Heavies such a strange bedfellow for the Brazilian Girls, an electro-fusion quartet.

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On the one hand, the Heavies are playing new old-school funk. It's the same recipe that was perfected in the '70s: find the groove, get on it and give it the three R's: repetition, repetition, repetition. Meanwhile, the Girls are more interested in bending electro, lounge, industrial, dub, drum 'n' bass and trip-hop into one new enchilada.

As it turns out, both are great inductors to dancing, but neither gives music a substantial boost in evolution, although the Brazilian Girls do come close.

Sabina Scuibba, the Girls' mouthpiece and only girl, crept on stage with her hair pulled forward covering half of her face; the other half was veiled by a thin cloth mask, giving an eerie, yet exciting post-apocalyptic quality to her appearance. Later, she would apply makeup directly to the mask, then remove it without fully divulging her complete visage. As if this mystery were not enough, the "Blade Runner" babe switched among English, German, Spanish, French and Italian lyrics as easily as her drummer, Aaron Johnston, switched between half and double time.

Outside of the name, there's nothing new about the Brand New Heavies. Not even their new album.

Indeed, frontwoman N'Dea Davenport did return to the band after a hiatus, but there's nothing on the June 2006 release "Get Used to It" that hasn't been done before. The grooves groove; the beats bounce; the funk is funky; it's soulful; at times, it's seductive.